Help! How can I break my Erg Plateau??

[toniree]

Hi, I've been rowing for about 6 months, and am a rising senior in highschool.
My first ever 2k 6 months ago was a 7' flat piece, and over the summer, I've been working my ass off for a sub 6'30".
Last week, I erged a 6'34" PB. A month ago, I erged my first 6k, coming in at 21'30" I recall.
The Problem is, these days, I feel like that when I'm erging the same workouts, I'm not getting any faster, hence I'm plateauing. I really need to break this fast cuz I have to get a sub 6'30" by early fall.

My workouts look like this:Mon-Sat Weights in the morning, Ergs at night. Sun-Running in the morning.
Erg Workouts:On Mon, Wed and Fri, I erg Low spm, Full Pressure 2x6k, 3x20", 2x30" respectively.
On Tue, Thur, Sat, I erg from one of these pieces each day: 2x(12x(1'40"on,20"off)), 5x1500(22,open,24,open,26), 4x2000, 500x6, or 3x(12x(1'on1'off)).

Doing the same workouts the next week, I can tell that my results just aren't getting better.
What could I be doing wrong?
Am I overtraining? Maybe Under?

p.s. I asked my Trainer, he says "just row your ass off" you'll get there. But that's honestly not too reassuring.

[shaugh13]

What weight/height are you?

To know if you are over/ under training what splits are pulling for the workouts, to me it seems like your doing too much interval training and not enough long steady state training session (10-15k).

What kind of weights are you doing 6 days a week, most body builders wouldnt do that much so unless your doing short strength training sessions with one or two exercises that could be one of your problems that your burning yourself out doing weights which wont let you train properly on the erg.

[toniree]

I'm 6'3", 185lbs.
I'm squatting 7sets of 30 reps+5 sets of 25 Leg Presses+core two days a week,
7 sets of 10-12 pullups+4 sets of 15 bench pulls+core two days a week,
and 3 sets of power cleans to failure+3 sets of deadlifts to failure twice a week.

But even if there's 10+hours in between my lifts and ergs, could I be burning myself out?

[shaugh13]

Yeah that level of weights would burn out alot people as a training plan alone in my opinion.

It's kind of a toss up in weights now and is probably a seperate arguement, some people believe doing high rep endurance weights is best for rowing other believe doing pure strength training is better, im for the strength training myself but neither are doing any harm and both are getting you better, just a question of which one is best. I also think that training to failure is a bad idea in a sport where developing endurance is the key, After going to failure your legs/back will need probably 3 days rest to preform to your potential on the erg.

As for you origional worry about breaking 6:30 when your at 6:34, i wouldnt be worried. At your stage you will start to see huge improvements on your 2k score for your first few, jumps of 6/7 seconds till you get near 6:20.

I'd be confident of you seeing huge increases in your erg scores when you stop doing weights 2/3 weeks before your next test no matter what you do so i wouldnt be worried at all.

[toniree]

Thanks, and wow 2-3weeks? thats just hard to believe because I've never went more than a week in highschool without weights... But I'll have to trust you on this one.

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

Your trainer is an idiot.

But that's besides the point.

Why are you doing all your workouts full pressure? Sounds to me like you're not letting your body recover at all.

[toniree]

Well guys.... Thanks a lot, your replies were helpful, but not really used....
I took a 2k test today... and PULLED A 6:29!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gregsmith01748]

Awesome. If you improved this much over the summer, you've got more improvement coming to you.